{"id":509207,"date":"2026-03-02T09:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T09:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/509207\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T09:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T09:50:08","slug":"i-picked-up-my-wedge-before-playing-partners-ball-hit-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/509207\/","title":{"rendered":"I Picked Up My Wedge Before Playing Partner\u2019s Ball Hit It"},"content":{"rendered":"

After playing a shot onto the green from a bunker<\/a>, you leave your wedge<\/a> on the putting surface before going to take your putt. There\u2019s nothing to stop you from doing that of course.<\/p>\n

Where you’ve left it is clearly not going to interfere with your next shot so you think little of it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But then your playing partner strikes a putt from the other side of the green and you can see it is too hard, it\u2019s going to go racing past the hole and possibly hit and be stopped by your wedge.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

You quickly move back to your wedge and lift it off the ground as your partner\u2019s ball rolls towards it. Their ball misses it and rolls off the edge of the putting surface.<\/p>\n

Have you breached the Rules<\/a>? Should you have left the putter there in situ? If there is a penalty, who is facing it?<\/p>\n

Well, it\u2019s good news on this one. There\u2019s no penalty. It\u2019s covered by Rule 11.3 which deals with \u2013 Deliberately Removing Objects or Altering Conditions To Affect Ball In Motion.<\/p>\n

This Rule does not prohibit a player from lifting or moving \u2013 \u201cEquipment belonging to any player (other than a ball at rest anywhere except the putting green or a ball marker anywhere on the course.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In the instance described above, you have lifted a club (that is equipment) when the ball is in motion and Rule 11.3 says you are not prohibited from doing that. Therefore \u2013 no penalty and your partner will play on from where their ball came to rest.<\/p>\n

What would have happened if you hadn\u2019t had time to move your wedge and your playing partner\u2019s ball had hit it?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s covered by Rule 11.1. Ball in Motion Accidentally Hits Person or Outside Influence.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

As a starting point, there\u2019s no penalty to either player – good news again!<\/p>\n

But what you do next would depend on whether your playing partner had played the shot that hit your wedge from on or off the putting green.<\/p>\n

If they had played the shot from off the putting green, the player would play the ball as it lies. If it were resting against the wedge \u2013 the club could be removed \u2013 it\u2019s a movable obstruction.<\/p>\n

If your playing partner had played their shot from the putting green and it had struck your wedge, they would have to replay their stroke.<\/p>\n

If the player does not replay the stroke in that instance they get the general penalty<\/a> of two strokes in stroke play (and the stroke counts.) In match play, it would be loss of hole.<\/p>\n

If the player replays the stroke from the wrong place, they get the general penalty for playing from a wrong place under Rule 14.7.<\/p>\n

Basically \u2013 if a partner\u2019s ball is headed for a club you\u2019ve laid on the ground and you pick it up to avoid the ball hitting it \u2013 there\u2019s no penalty and your partner plays the ball as it lies.<\/p>\n

Rules Quiz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After playing a shot onto the green from a bunker, you leave your wedge on the putting surface…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-509207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}